And Forget to Live
by Kat Ducat
Summary: Ginny comes to Hogwarts for her daughter's graduation and gets more than she bargained for. Old memories resurface, pain returns. Written for Olive Butter's Mirror of Erised Challenge.


_A/N: Written for Olive Butter's Mirror of Erised Challenge with my character being Ginny. Takes place in next-gen._

_Enjoy!_

)O(

Ginny strolled through the corridor, enjoying the sound of children playing outside. She laughed.

"Now I'm imagining things." she thought. Her children weren't children anymore. She must get used to that, especially with the graduation of her youngest daughter so close at hand. But it was difficult to associate anything but happy memories with Hogwarts. Of course, there was the time when war broke out, destroying the place, but that seemed so long ago. It was so long ago that Hogwarts had been rebuilt and a new generation of students had come and gone. It was so long ago, she didn't have any kids yet. It was so long ago, she'd still had Harry…

No matter. Today was supposed to be a day for celebration, graduation and congratulation. In a few hours, her little Lily was going to be standing with all the rest of her grade, grinning cheerily and accepting a handshake from whoever was the Minister of Magic at the moment. These days, they changed every year in an effort to keep power away from the power-hungry and have some equality in the ministry. One year a man might be your boss, the next you could be his.

Her musings led Ginny all the way up the seventh floor, where she was delighted to see that the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy was still hanging there, salvaged from the wreck of the old Hogwarts. A thought popped into her head. When they were rebuilding Hogwarts, the witches and wizards involved wanted to make it as much as the old Hogwarts as possible. To achieve that aim, they cast Remembering spells on the air that used to be architecture and allowed the castle to rise up from the ground exactly as it was before the Death Eaters interfered. Some of the more recent additions such as the stage were not there, but that didn't matter for what Ginny had in mind.

In all her years of adulthood she had never forgotten the room that allowed Hogwarts to triumph over evil. She recalled the cushions it provided when it was the headquarters of the DA. She reminisced over the secret hideaway created when Voldemort held control of the country and students needed respite from punishment. There was even a time when the room had willingly made itself into an exact replica of Harry's room in her first year just so she could weep over the fact that he would never love her.

But enough about Harry. Ginny shook herself mentally. "You promised to stop thinking about him, nothing you can do can bring him back" were her hard thoughts, "you're only wasting your time."

"I'm 45 damn it! If I can't waste time than who can?" unable to control her emotions any longer, Ginny shrieked this last part. "That's it. I'm going in." Resolutely, she stepped up to the blank stretch of wall next to the tapestry and closed her eyes. Feverishly, she muttered, "I need a place to find my peace. I need a place to find my peace. I need a place to fall to pieces." When she opened her eyes she found a small door staring back. Upon entering the Room of Requirement, Ginny was surprised my the fact that there appeared to be nothing in the room, including a good source of light. She had expected a bed a least, where she could recover herself in time for her daughter's graduation. After a second sweep of her eyes, Ginny saw a mirror.

It was very large and had ornate letters carved into the edges. Knowing that there was some reason the room had to give her this, Ginny stepped in front of it. Reflected in the mirror were an old man and woman. They reminded her vaguely of her parents are they were now, but there was something different about them. The man was positively beaming, while the woman had a sad smile full of understanding on her face. She stopped gazing at them after a few minutes in order to examine the frame more closely. Ginny had never found history as boring as the others in her class did and had chosen it as her main subject in her last years at Hogwarts. Leaning closer to look at the letters on one side of the mirror, she suddenly recognized it. But of course! The Mirror of Erised, supposed to have perished at the Battle of Hogwarts, was standing right in front of her. She stepped back and took a moment to let her consciousness digest that one of the oldest magical artefacts was hers for these few stolen minutes.

Now when she looked at the reflection in the glass, she knew exactly what she was seeing.

Some six years ago when Harry was working as an auror to catch Oliver Peabody, a known murderer, his search had taken him to Peru where he contracted the deadly Stovil disease at the hands of Peabody's associates. Harry returned to London greatly weakened, and not even the best healer had been able to take the disease out of his system. There was nothing they could do, so they sent him home to his family. For eight horrible weeks, Ginny lived in fear of Harry dying the next day. No-one knew when it would happen which meant that every moment she spent out of his company, Ginny became more and more agitated. Finally when she could stand it no more she would stick her head in the nearest fireplace and check on her husband.

All this attention on her part meant that Ginny neglected the kids for the first time in their lives. James's 17th had to be postponed because Harry had a nasty cough that day. Albus's holiday with the Weasleys, which was arranged so that Ginny could have some time for herself, was called off completely when she thought Harry was finally dying. After a time of five weeks Hermione showed up at the front door, told Ginny she was being selfish and invited everyone all their friends and family for dinner. "If he doesn't see people, and people don't see him," she said, "then he might as well already be dead."

Hermione's intervention snapped Ginny out of her mindless worry and pulled her into an inevitable calm. When Harry died three weeks later, she shed no tears.

It was all coming back to her. The two figures in the mirror must have been around eighty, but she recognized herself and her husband in them. This was what she really wanted. Her one and only heart's desire was to have been able to spend the rest of her life with Harry. And when they died, it would be together, wrinkles and all.

Ginny sat down on the cold floor and continued to gaze into the mirror. The passage of time was immaterial; all that mattered now were the people gazing back.

)O(

In the light of dusk, Lily stopped chatting to her friend and looked around once again for her mother. She was nowhere to be seen and if she didn't come soon she would miss the whole ceremony. Lily tried to ask others whether they had seen her, but all she got back were blank stares.

"Get into order, children," ordered Professor Bones, "and be quiet! You may be adults now but I can still make sure your parents will hear about any misbehaviour." Resigned, Lily took her place between Sandy and Tom. She must face this alone, it seemed.

Lily wasn't able to find her mother even after the graduation party.

No-one has seen her for years.

However, some students at Hogwarts do tell the story of an old crone, sitting still in the Room of Midnight Appearances, enraptured by something only she can see. They say that spider webs adorn her body from head to toe. They say she smiles.

)O(

_Fin_

_Tell me what you think!_


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